Thursday, June 13, 2013

[530] MTSU ‘Out of the Blue’ documents Ricketts’ historic no-gas trip

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MURFREESBORO — The June edition of MTSU’s monthly
television program, “Out of the Blue,” offers a passenger-seat view of the
historic coast-to-coast trip this spring conducted by professor Cliff Ricketts,
MTSU’s “Davy Crockett of science.”

“Sun and Water: Driving Coast-to-Coast on Nature’s Energy”
will air for the first time at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, June 9, on NewsChannel 5+
(Comcast cable channel 250). The show also airs on other Middle Tennessee cable
outlets, so check local listings.

Watch the new
“Out of the Blue” anytime on http://mtsunews.com
by clicking on the “Out of the Blue” tab, or watch it on Murfreesboro cable
Channel 9 Monday through Sunday at 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. and on NewsChannel5+
Sundays at 1:30 p.m. It also can be viewed on.

In the 30-minute mini-documentary, video journalist Mike
Browning of MTSU’s marketing team chronicles Ricketts’ five-day, 2,600-mile
odyssey of driving across the U.S. without gasoline in March.

“This is awesome. Mike did a tremendous job,” Ricketts said.
“Mike totally captured it all, from the sunrise at Tybee Island (Ga.) to the
sunsets at the Pacific, and I like how it showed scenes of Americana along the
way.

“This fully explained the scientific, environmental,
political and economic implications why the research is important.”

Powered exclusively by hydrogen made from sun and water
manufactured on the MTSU campus, Ricketts made headlines nationwide when he and
his team successfully drove a modified Toyota Prius and 1994 Toyota Tercel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific
Ocean. University cameras documented every step of the way.

Ricketts, a veteran
School of Agribusiness and Agriscience faculty member and an alternative fuels
researcher, has long had a dream that one day people will drive their vehicles
using only the natural energies of sun and water. He and his students have
performed 25 years of research to determine how to make that dream a reality.

Time and again
along the cross-country journey, Ricketts stopped for media interviews, telling
reporter after reporter about his expedition, and about the technology.

Writer and producer Browning spent countless hours in the
making of a 60-minute documentary, which has been trimmed to meet the 30-minute
requirement for the television airing. Jon Jackson with MTSU Audio-Visual
Services served as chief editor.

Browning filmed the entire journey, transcribed hours of
video, wrote the script and performed voiceovers in the video.

“So much detail goes in behind it,” said Browning, who
experienced a 25-year career as a TV journalist before working for the state of
Tennessee, first in media relations and now as a video producer and editor at
MTSU. Browning covered Ricketts while working for WKRN-TV in Nashville.

“I found him (Ricketts) to be innovative,” Browning said. “I
had the privilege of seeing it come to fruition. I was fortunate to be a part
of a historic trip.”